Rollin' Sixes

Last night I finally decided to revisit the 2 x 2 weave program where we left off -- which is introducing the second set of six weave poles about 15' - 20' past the first set. Heaven help me, but I just haven't been able to make myself commit to the program since we completed the first six days of weave training. We have been including weaves in our other exercises, but have not focused exclusively on the weaves, themselves.

I set up a trio of jumps coming into and out of the two sets of weaves to offer some variation and to continue to work Secret's entries. I used the bumper as a reward in the first session and switched to the fluffy tug and then the Wubba in session two (probably should have stuck with just the bumper...).

As outlined in Susan's program, we started out with a refresher of the just the first set, followed by introducing the second set on their own before connecting them. I started out with the two sets about 18' feet apart and Secret did a really good job at driving through both sets without missing a beat. We worked from all angles and threw in front & rear crosses.

I moved the poles to about 10' apart for the second session. Secret handled this just fine, but she lost steam fairly early on in this session. It didn't seem so much like boredom with the toy or the drill, but more that she just seemed quite tired. I was happy with the work we'd done for the night, so I decided to just call it quits at that point. When she's tired, she's done!

This was the first time I'd worked her on 20" jumps before & after the weaves. She didn't even blink at the change and we only had one knocked bar when she jumped flat.

(Like the dirt smudge on her cheek? Apparently jumping in the pond wasn't enough to clean it off!)

Secret had another good weekend testing the waters of being left loose while I worked at the Humane Society. Once again, Bethany took on the duty of letting them out mid-day. As we did last weekend, I crated Secret and gave all of the dogs their frozen food toys when I left in the morning around 8:00 a.m. Bethany comes between 1:00 & 2:00 to let them out and have a play date with Rascal. I guess she typically stays for 45 minutes or so, then she leaves Secret out of her crate until I come home, usually by 6:00 p.m. On average, Secret is up to about 4 hours out of her crate.

On Saturday, everything looked to be in place when I got home. I noticed, however, that all of the food toys were on the floor. Bethany and I had talked about putting stuff up when she left after the "Life Saver Incident" the weekend prior, but I figured she had just forgotten to do it. Secret had chewed a piece off Luke's on Friday night when I left them all home for a few hours, and then on Saturday I discovered that she chewed a piece off Kaiser's. Unlike the Life Saver toy, however, she doesn't seem to ingest the pieces of these toys -- I found the chunks both times.

Bethany called Saturday night to check in and see how the dogs were. I told her everything looked good when I got home, but then told her that I think we do need to put up the toys when she leaves because Secret is still eating them. Bethany's response was, "I did put them up! I put them on the table!"

Naughty, naughty Secret! She must have climbed onto the chair and gotten them off the table! What is so odd about this situation, however, is that there were three open bags of treats that have been on the table for some time, so that Bethany or my parents could feed them when letting the dogs out. She took all three toys off the table but left the treats? One of my friends noted that she did that because she knew that Bethany would get the blame for it. lol I wouldn't put it past her!

So because of this, on Sunday Bethany put the toys on the bar instead of the table. This seems to have done the trick and everything was untouched when I got home.

I have to get a course set up tonight or tomorrow for Bethany & Rascal to practice on before their fun match this weekend, which means that Secret should get in some course work this week. What I think we really need, though, is more jumpers work -- But Rascal needs to do contacts, so I'll be setting a regular course.

Oh! I finally got my PVC corners in the mail yesterday -- So it's time to head to Menard's to pick up supplies to *finally* build my table!! Something new for Secret to learn, and since I plan to teach it through shaping, I'm sure she'll love it.